“There was quite a boom and the ground shook, and I thought there’s something very wrong here,“ Simon Kuper, who was one of the thousands of people in attendance at the France vs. Germany soccer game in the Stade de France on Nov. 14., said.

A large explosion at 9:20 p.m. Central European Time was the first of many deadly horrors to take place in the beloved city of Paris over the next 33 minutes. One hundred and twenty-nine lives wouldn’t live to see the next hour, and over 300 will carry the emotional and physical scars of the tragic events for the rest of their lives as they try to heal from their injuries.

At 9:20 p.m., a bomb was set off outside of the Stade de France during a highly-anticipated soccer match, and one of those in attendance included François Hollande, the president of France.
At 9:25 p.m., a masked shooter fired into Le Petit Cambodge, starting a chain reaction of similar attacks on cafes and restaurants around Paris. Shattered glass, rubble, bullet shells and bloodied bodies were the scene of eight different restaurants and cafes in Paris.

Stade de France would be the site of a second explosion at 9:30 p.m., just 10 minutes after the previous explosion. By this point, luckily, much of the stadium had been cleared, though the brave soccer players continued to play at this point.

At 9:40 p.m., terrorists opened fire in the Bataclan Theatre, where the Eagles of Death Metal were just beginning their show.

“It was a bloodbath. They shot at us, and reloaded the guns, several times, multiple times,” an anonymous survivor of the Bataclan attack said.

Isobel Bowdery is a 22-year-old South African student, who decided to attend the Eagles of Death Metal concert on Fri. Nov 13. At the time, her and other people, dancing around were blissfully unaware that 89 of them would never make it back out of the doors of the concert hall. To survive the rampage, she played dead on the floor, surrounded by dying and dead people for about two hours before the French Police raided the hall.

“This an attack not just on Paris; it’s an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share,” President Barack Obama said in a statement released on the night of the attacks.

“It’s so hard to laugh… but we have to laugh and joke, because life must go on,” Mohammed Lalmassi, a citizen of Paris, said.

Obama also vowed loyalty between the U.S. and France, and swore to offer France whatever support they’ll need in the near future. France and Russia have already allied and began to bomb Islamic State camps, beginning their attacks on Nov. 17.
The news of the senseless attacks on France spread through social media like wildfire, causing a chaos of people tweeting, posting and Instagramming their support for the nation. Many people took to social media trying to get in touch with loved ones who were in Paris during the attacks. One of them being Polina Buckley, who sent out a series of tweets begging people for information on her boyfriend Nick Alexander, who was a vendor at the ambushed Eagles of Death Metal concert.

Her tweets begged for information, and included pictures of his face for identification.
What she found, though, was the worst thing that she could have ever imagined. Alexandar was one of the people who never lived to walk back out of the doors of the Bataclan theatre.

As people attempt to understand the evil people must possess to so carefully orchestrate such an attack, we, as people, cannot help but question the society in which we live in. It was such a senseless act of violence, and was committed out of nothing but pure hatred and evil. To counteract that hatred, we must build our understanding of the people who are guilty of this crime out of facts, not stereotypes. We cannot blame an entire people or religion for the actions of a few.

In this time of rebuilding and healing for the country of France, they have vowed not to accept the threats and violence of terrorism anymore.

“Terrorism will not destroy the French Republic, because the Republic will destroy it,” Hollande said.

Obama also vowed loyalty between the U.S. and France, and swore to offer France whatever support they’ll need in the near future. France and Russia have already allied and began to bomb Islamic State camps, beginning their attacks on Nov. 17.

The news of the senseless attacks on France spread through social media like wildfire, causing a chaos of people tweeting, posting and Instagramming their support for the nation. Many people took to social media trying to get in touch with loved ones who were in Paris during the attacks. One of them being Polina Buckley, who sent out a series of tweets begging people for information on her boyfriend Nick Alexander, who was a vendor at the ambushed Eagles of Death Metal concert.

Her tweets begged for information, and included pictures of his face for identification.
What she found, though, was the worst thing that she could have ever imagined. Alexandar was one of the people who never lived to walk back out of the doors of the Bataclan theatre.

As people attempt to understand the evil people must possess to so carefully orchestrate such an attack, we, as people, cannot help but question the society in which we live in. It was such a senseless act of violence, and was committed out of nothing but pure hatred and evil. To counteract that hatred, we must build our understanding of the people who are guilty of this crime out of facts, not stereotypes. We cannot blame an entire people or religion for the actions of a few.

In this time of rebuilding and healing for the country of France, they have vowed not to accept the threats and violence of terrorism anymore.

“Terrorism will not destroy the French Republic, because the Republic will destroy it,” Hollande said.